CHAPTER ONE

“I’M SCARED,” MOM SAYS, from the doorway of Lily’s room. “Can I get in with you?”

“Yes,” Lily says. She moves over in bed and sits hugging her knees. Mom slides under the sheet, but she doesn’t lie down. She and Lily look out the black window at the black sky.

“Wind,” Mom says. “I don’t know—sometimes it’s even worse than lightning.”

“I know,” says Lily. Lightning comes quickly and then goes away. This wind just keeps on roaring. A leftover hurricane came through two days ago. After the rain the air stayed smothery and hot. Now cold air from Canada is pushing the hurricane air away. It breaks off tree branches, and rattles windows, and bangs into the sides of the house.

The black night makes Lily feel blind. She reaches over and pushes the switch on the bedside lamp. The switch clicks, but nothing happens.

“The electricity’s out,” Mom says.

Lily reaches for Mom’s hand. “I hope Beware is okay.” Beware is out there in the wind and dark.

“She’ll be fine,” Mom says. “The wind can’t hurt a horse.”

“It can’t hurt us either,” Lily says, and Mom laughs.

“Look,” she says. A huge black cloud sails across the black sky. The rim of the cloud is silver with moonlight.

“It’s clearing up,” Mom says. “We’ll have a beautiful day tomorrow.”

Lily watches the ribbon of silver twist along the edge of the cloud. The cloud sails swiftly past the window, and another pushes behind it. The long roar of the wind dies down for a moment.

Then from far away, from down near the horse pasture, comes a sound like gunshots. Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!

Lily and Mom squeeze hands. There’s a long, loud raking sound, the sound of something breaking, and then a crash.

“A tree,” Mom says. “A big tree must have fallen.”

Lily doesn’t say anything. She knows how Mom will answer. But she wonders, is Beware all right?

Someone walks out of the downstairs bedroom. The kitchen door opens. After a minute Lily calls, “Gramp?”

He answers her from out on the porch. “Tree down somewhere.”

“We heard,” Mom says.

“Horses are running,” Gramp says. “Hope my fence is still up.”

“Should we go see?” Lily is already halfway out of bed, feeling in the dark for her clothes.

“Don’t bother!” Gramp says. “The batteries are gone in this dadblamed flashlight! Wouldn’t you just know it?” Lily hears him grunt, and then she hears the flashlight thud on the lawn. “We’ll have to wait till daylight.”

“Lie down, Lily,” Mom says. Lily does, but she stays awake a long time, trying to hear the hoofbeats.

When Lily wakes up, Mom is getting out of bed. Downstairs the kitchen door bangs shut. The early-morning sky is baby blue, and a small white cloud stands still outside Lily’s window. Lily remembers the black and silver clouds last night, and she gets up quickly.

Already Gran is at the kitchen stove, and the phone is ringing. Mom answers it, and she tells Gran, “They want him on the road crew. A lot of trees came down last night.”

“I doubt they’ll get him,” Gran says as Lily goes out the door.

From the front step she can see all the way across the pasture. Gramp looks small down there, trudging up the slope toward the far fence. A silver green heap of leaves and branches lies across the fence line: one of the big maples.

Lily looks along the fence of Beware’s pasture. She’s looking so hard for broken places that at first she doesn’t see Beware and the pony. They’re grazing peacefully in the middle of their field.

But where are the other horses? The Girls, Gramp’s big blond workhorses, should be following him up the hill. The bunch of horses he bought last week to sell again should be there. Stogie, the black Morgan that no one can catch, should be galloping and snorting and looking dangerous.

There are no horses anywhere, and the cow and calf are gone, too. Gramp is all alone in the big pasture. Lily sees him climb over the fallen branches and bend down outside the fence. He must be looking at tracks. Now he stands up and looks off toward the woods and then the other way, toward the swamp. After a minute he turns back. Lily picks the flashlight up off the lawn and goes down to meet him.

“Morning,” Gramp says, and reaches into his pocket for his pipe. He bites onto the stem. Then he takes the pipe out of his mouth and says, “They split up. We’ve got the day’s work cut out for us.”

“The road crew wants you,” Lily says.

“They aren’t gettin’ me!” says Gramp. “If that cow or that team gets onto a road and somebody hits ’em—” He doesn’t say any more.

Lily looks toward the road that passes in front of the house. It runs downhill to a bigger road. Off in the hills behind the pasture are other roads: logging trails, dirt roads, and a mile away, another wide paved road.

“We should hurry,” she says.

“Breakfast first,” says Gramp. “This is going to be a big job.” In the kitchen he takes the cup of coffee Gran hands him and goes to the phone.

“Sorry, Ron, can’t help you out today,” he says. “I’ve got critters loose all over kingdom come.”

He’s quiet for a minute. Then his eyes start to bulge, and his nose gets red. “You let a car hit that work team at fifty miles an hour, Ron, and you’ll know you’ve got troubles!” he says, and he hangs up the phone with a crash. “Idiot!”

“The world isn’t built around farmers anymore, Linwood,” Gran says. “Sit down and eat your breakfast.”

Gramp sits, and he does eat. But he hardly seems to notice the crisp hash browns or the eggs. He’s looking off into space, and Lily knows what he sees. The red-and-white cow and the calf with her long white stockings. The Girls, turning their big heads and blinking their blond eyelashes. Beautiful Stogie, with his wild, matted mane. They are running loose, and anything could happen.

“At least Beware’s still here,” Lily says.

“Yes, Lily, I’m glad,” says Gramp.

“No, I mean, I can ride her out to find the others. She can help.”

Gramp looks across the table at Lily, and he smiles for the first time this morning. “You’re right. She can.”